London, UK, and Universal City, CA – June 29, 2009 – Virgin Media (NASDAQ: VMED) and Universal Pictures today announce the launch of PictureBox, the leading movies-on-demand TV subscription service, on Virgin Media’s TV platform.
From July, the PictureBox service will be available to Virgin Media’s 3.6 million TV subscribers for £5 per month and provide a broad selection of recent and library feature films. Subscribers will be able to view films whenever they like from a selection of 28 films at any given time, with seven new titles being added to the line-up each Friday. Most of the PictureBox films will be available in HD and many will not yet have been seen on free-to-air television in the UK.
Highlights of films that will be featured on PictureBox in the coming months include such hits as Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum, Children of Men and The Holiday, as well as classic blockbusters such as Scarface, Total Recall, The Nutty Professor and E.T – The Extra Terrestrial. PictureBox is wholly owned by Universal Pictures Ltd.
Katharine Burns, executive director of content acquisition at Virgin Media, said “Our customers love movies on demand and they’re watching millions of films every year. The addition of PictureBox means Virgin Media is the perfect choice for film fans, with a fantastic HD line-up and even more films to choose from, all at great value for money.”
The agreement continues the expansion of the PictureBox service, which also operates on other platforms in the UK, Poland and Singapore, and marks the service’s first UK platform to present films in HD.
“This agreement is a significant step in the growth of the PictureBox brand, which will now be available to Virgin Media’s 3.6 million TV customers in the UK,” added Belinda Menendez, president, NBC Universal International TV Distribution. “Our reach in the UK has now increased more than fivefold and the service has expanded internationally since initial launch less than three years ago.”
Virgin Media has pioneered on demand television in the UK with over half a billion views in 2008. More than half of its 3.6 million TV customers are now regularly watching on demand content. Virgin Media offers a vast library of thousands of hours of TV shows, movies, music and kids programming, all of which can be watched when viewers want, at the touch of a button.
